Health
Health and healthcare are at the forefront of disability rights issues. In these pieces, you’ll find insights on topics ranging from insurance and the need for systemic change within medical institutions, to the importance of self-care for your physical and mental well-being.
Showing Up in Public in a Disabled Trans Body
The first time I limped out of the men’s locker room and into the YMCA indoor swimming pool area without a rash guard covering my surgery-scarred chest, I felt queasy. I was certain it would turn into an 80’s high…
My Knowledge of My Body is Often Ignored When I Seek Medical Care
I walk through the doors behind the front desk of the pain clinic to room number four, the white-walled, two-chaired, one-tabled examination room that looks identical to the room I was in the last time I was here. I fill …
Slowing Down and Embracing Surgical Recovery is Still Living
I am working through one of those once a half-decade-or-so massive health shifts that folks with any chronic condition may find familiar: a rapid shift in function, surgery to implant more metal bits in me that set off alarms whenever…
Why Inspirational Memes About Mental Health Disabilities Are So Damaging
As a person with mental health disabilities, nothing makes me seethe like those who create inspirational memes that do more damage than good to the people in my community. Whenever I encounter such feel-good shibboleths, my hands tense, my breathing …
Here’s Why Student Loan Debt is a Disability Rights Issue
When Cara Liebowitz graduated from the City University of New York School of Professional Studies in 2016 with her MA in Disability Studies, she was already on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) so she found it surprisingly easy to have her …
Sex Work is a Disability Issue. So Why Doesn’t the Disability Community Recognize That?
Sex workers face enormous risks of violence both from the police and from clients, and they are about to face more.
With Great Power Comes Great Accessibility – How the Death of Stan Lee Affects the Disability Community
On November 12, 2018, our cultural light was dimmed with the loss of Stan Lee. Often described in the same manner as the characters he created, the loss of the mighty, spectacular, and at times uncanny Stanley Martin Lieber will…
How Proposed Changes to Public Charge Will Make It Hard to Immigrate with a Disability
Immigration is already an expensive, difficult process for anyone—but it might soon become even harder for immigrants with disabilities. In October 2018, the Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule change to existing laws surrounding immigration known as public charge.…